I was lucky enough to attend the Tate Modern opening in 2000. It was the lead story on BBC News and was reported around the world as a critical moment for both modern art and London’s regeneration. Before 2000 and Tate Modern, contemporary art was a niche minority interest, but this building – once a redundant power station in a grotty part of London on the unused Thames – opened the South Bank up as a thriving new river walk, with the young British artists (or YBAs) the talk of the town.

In the same way the opening of Tate Modern in 2000 changed London and the modern art scene forever, I hope the opening of Factory International can change Manchester in 2023.

The origins of MIF started as an idea after the 2002 Commonwealth Games to grow Manchester's reputation internationally as a creative city. When I moved to Manchester 40 years ago in 1983, it was a post-industrial, demoralised city full of ‘dark satanic mills’. It undertook a massive rebalance driven by visionary city leaders, and by 2002 had secured its reputation for regeneration and sport. But it was still perceived as a creative and artistic backwater.

I was asked by the city’s then-leaders Sir Richard Leese and Sir Howard Bernstein to chair a panel of Manchester’s creative leaders – initially to look for a creative director for the city. Peter Saville, of Factory Records fame, quickly helped to guide us into thinking more about ‘content’ – and so the idea of a biennial Manchester International Festival was born.

Since then, under the artistic direction of Alex Poots and more recently, John McGrath, every two years MIF has celebrated the best of global culture, Manchester style. The inaugural festival in 2007 set the scene, with Il Tempo de Postino which included works by artists such as Mathew Barney, Trisha Donnelly and Olafur Eliasson, while Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett of Gorillaz collaborated with director Chen Shi-Zheng on Monkey: Journey to the West. In our fallow year, we brought Leonard Cohen to Manchester Opera House for four special nights. Then in 2009 we were back with Kraftwerk, Marina Abramović and the celebrated Zaha Hadid Architects.

A biennial pattern was established and each festival grew – from Björk, Snoop Dogg, and Victoria Wood in 2011; to Kenneth Branagh directing a performance of Macbeth in an Ancoats church in 2013. In 2015 the eclectic mix ranged from children’s television legend Mr Tumble to Gerhard Richter collaborating with composer Arvo Pärt. By 2017 we were back celebrating the best of Manchester, as homegrown band New Order collaborated with artist Liam Gillick on So it goes. In 2019 it was Yoko Ono’s Bells for Peace, and Maxine Peake and Sarah Frankcom’s The Nico Project that set the stage.

MIF21 presented a host of other challenges. The first festival since Covid-19 required several planning contingencies to run within the confines of the pandemic. But MIF21 still brought Manchester to life. From Christine Sun Kim’s thought-provoking Captioning the City to Boris Charmatz’s Sea Change, which brought 150 dancers from Greater Manchester to Deansgate, and the legendary Argentine artist Marta Minujín creating an iconic new artwork Big Ben Lying Down With Political Books, a 42m sculpture in Piccadilly Gardens.

And now, it’s time for a new chapter as we move into Factory International. Offering up to 13,200m2 of flexible indoor and outdoor space, this mammoth new building will become a permanent, year-round arts and culture venue for Manchester. The design comes from Ellen van Loon of the world-leading Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA). The result is a multi-use space that can adapt to host any kind of set-up – from intimate theatre shows and intricate exhibitions to huge performances and warehouse-scale gigs. There are some fascinating anecdotes about the building’s design that I’d encourage you to read here.

Attracting up to 850,000 visitors annually, Factory International will add £1.1 billion to the local economy and surrounding area over a decade and create and support up to 1,500 direct and indirect jobs. Its pioneering programme of skills, training and engagement will benefit local people and the next generation of creative talent from across the city, while apprenticeships and trainee schemes are already underway during the construction phase.

This amazing new space will be the hub of our next festival in 2023, the heart of the events and a place accessible to all. We’ve revealed some of the line-up so far including, You, Me and the Balloons, a world-first installation of Yayoi Kusama’s inflatable artworks which forms part of MIF23; and Free Your Mind, our official opening show inspired by The Matrix, directed by Danny Boyle and choreography by Kenrick 'H2O' Sandy MBE, co-founder and artistic director of award-winning Boy Blue. And we’ll be offering selected tickets for just £10 ensuring that more people can experience what’s on offer.

Much hard work and tenacity has led the Factory International team to this point, and we must thank our supporters; from the UK Government to each artist who has worked with us – and of course Manchester City Council, whose support has been unwavering in spite of the tough economic challenges facing local authorities.

Our goal each festival is to bring world-renowned artists from different art forms and backgrounds to Manchester, to create dynamic, innovative and forward-thinking new work. We can’t wait to do that again in 2023 – and year-round through our permanent new home.